Let's Go to Hell Together

The train moved steadily through the tunnel, an unchanging darkness beyond its windows.

The carriage was lively, with high school students huddled around their phones.

Halloween had finally come around again.

Their screens showed live footage of the Halloween parade on Shibuya's streets-huge crowds, flashing lights, and costumed revelers dancing to music everywhere.

All of Shibuya was still basking in the Halloween atmosphere.

But one person's expression had changed.

At the announcement, Gu Yanzhi straightened up immediately.

The thugs trying to shake him down were still cursing at him.

But those little punks didn't mean shit. Gu Yanzhi had no attention left to spare them.

October 31, 2018.

All of Shibuya would become a living hell under the havoc wrought by Brain and those Cursed Spirits.

Releasing the hanging strap, Gu Yanzhi began planning the route he would take after getting off.

As long as he left central Shibuya before the Curtain fell, he might still have a chance in this life.

While he was still thinking, one of the thugs yanked his tie hard from the side again.

This time, the thug clearly used more force, pulling Gu Yanzhi off balance. His shoulder struck a nearby hanging handhold, and his briefcase slipped from his hand and hit the floor.

"Hey, old man!" A face wearing a black mask pushed up close to his. "You bumped into me when we passed that last station and left a mark on my clothes. Didn't you see?"

Gu Yanzhi steadied himself and looked down at the man in front of him.

He was in his early twenties, wearing a black hoodie and a black mask. His exposed eyes were narrow, their provocation practiced.

Two others stood behind him-a stocky man with a buzz cut and a skinny man in a baseball cap-fanning out to block off a corner of the carriage.

Gu Yanzhi glanced at their positions. Clearly, this wasn't their first time doing this.

He now had the combined strength of two adult men.

The system's stacking wasn't simply adding strength together. It comprehensively enhanced his entire body, from his bones and heart and lungs to his muscles.

That enhancement far exceeded the strength of two adults. It also meant that reaching Toji's level of physical prowess might not require accumulating over a hundred deaths.

He was confident he could handle these thugs, though it probably wouldn't be easy.

Given the situation, he had to get out immediately.

"So, how are you going to settle this?"

The man in the black mask stepped forward and jabbed a finger at his collarbone.

"Look at this mark on my clothes yourself-"

He raised his hoodie sleeve, revealing a pale gray mark about two centimeters long.

"This cost twenty thousand yen! Pay up or we call the cops. Your choice."

Most office workers would choose to settle privately-a few thousand yen to buy some peace.

That was precisely what they counted on. The more someone feared trouble, the more brazen they became.

Gu Yanzhi's immediate priority was leaving, so he picked up his briefcase and took out a few bills.

At the same time, the train announcement sounded again.

"We have arrived at Shibuya Station. Please exit through the doors on the left."

After handing the bills to the thug, Gu Yanzhi immediately tried to push through the crowd toward the doors.

Looking at the money they had obtained so easily, the thugs shared a single thought.

"We asked for too little. This guy's a cash cow."

Gu Yanzhi stopped on his way to the doors and looked back. The masked thug had grabbed his briefcase.

The other two took the opportunity to close in as well, watching him with broad smiles.

"Old man, this isn't nearly enough."

Looking at the thugs surrounding him and the train doors behind them, Gu Yanzhi reconsidered.

His restraint seemed to have convinced these punks that he was a pushover.

His desperate desire to survive had led him to make the wrong call.

Even setting aside whether he could escape after getting off now, Brain would probably finish putting up the Curtain while he was running.

His chances of surviving the Shibuya incident were practically zero.

He had no Cursed Energy and couldn't see Cursed Spirits.

And waiting for him next were Mahito, Jogo, Hanami, and Sukuna-any one of them could grind him to dust.

In this life, or perhaps in every transmigration that followed, death might be the normal outcome. Surviving would be the miracle.

Then what was the optimal solution?

The optimal solution was to find a way to kill myself now and end this run.

Die quickly and cleanly at this station, return to System Space, and keep advancing my homemade heavenly restriction tyrant plan.

Stack my physical abilities higher, step by step. That was the right approach, the only path that would let me survive in this world.

Staying alive in this life had no strategic value-I'd die sooner or later anyway. Early or late, death was death.

But that was a loser's way of thinking.

It was an escape.

Backing down from the thugs' harassment just now made them treat me like a pushover. Every life I lived in the Jujutsu world would be the same.

I couldn't think about "starting over" the moment I encountered my first obstacle in every life-even if I really gained power later, I'd still be a spineless paper tiger.

The system gave me a way out, but if I used it to skip every challenge, that cowardice would eventually seep into my bones.

So in this life, he wanted to try.

To see how far he could go in a game where his odds were zero.

His mind made up, Gu Yanzhi looked at the thugs with a relaxed expression.

The man in the black mask behind him was about to say something else, but Gu Yanzhi gave him no chance to speak.

He spun around and slammed a fist straight into the masked man's face.

The strength of two adult men was stacked into one arm.

The masked man's nose collapsed beneath his fist. Even through the mask, he could feel the bones shifting out of place.

Blood sprayed from the mask, splattering Gu Yanzhi's shirt cuff.

The masked man didn't even have time to scream. He fell backward, the back of his head striking the edge of a seat with a dull thud, then slid to the floor and lay motionless.

Gu Yanzhi hadn't held back much. These men would die under the brutality of the Cursed Spirits and Sukuna anyway. He might as well give them a dose of anesthesia himself and make their final journey easier.

Just as the other two reacted, Gu Yanzhi moved again, leaning forward into the space between them and hooking both arms around their necks.

"Then none of us are running. Let's go to hell together."

At the sight, the passengers moved aside and began calling the police and looking for staff.

But soon, one after another, they all voiced the same concern.

"Why isn't there any signal?"

"Does your phone have reception?"

"No-what about yours?"

"Nothing either. It won't connect. It just won't connect."

Gu Yanzhi slowly exhaled. Every phone had lost its signal at the same time.

It probably wasn't a cell tower malfunction. It was the Curtain.

The Curtain had fallen.